1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door member for a tape cartridge having a tape outlet formed in a housing thereof for allowing a magnetic tape to be pulled out, the door member closing the tape outlet such that the tape outlet can be opened, and a tape cartridge including the door member.
2. Description of the Related Art
As this kind of door member, there has been conventionally proposed a door member for a tape cartridge in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-100148. This door member has a body, a projection to be operated by an apparatus, and a spring-mounting portion on which a spring member is mounted. When seen from the inside of the door member, the spring-mounting portion is one step lower as compared with the inner surface of the door member, so that a hood is formed on the upper side of the spring-mounting portion. A spring member-fixing portion having a rectangular parallelepiped shape is formed on the inner surface of the spring-mounting portion, and a mount hole extends through the spring member-fixing portion in the vertical direction. Further, the outer surface of the spring-mounting portion is formed with a rectangular hole, which is provided for shaping the mount hole when the door member is molded. The mount hole extends through the upper one of the side walls of the rectangular hole.
A bend portion formed at one end of the spring member is mounted in the spring-mounting portion of the door member thus constructed in a state inserted into the mount hole from the lower side thereof. In this case, even if a second arm portion of the spring member is deformed due to expansion or contraction thereof occurring in accordance with the sliding of the door member, the foremost end of the bend portion protruding from the mount hole is brought into abutment with the lower surface of the hood, which prevents the inner surface of the housing from being abraded by the foremost end of the spring member.
However, as a result of the study of this door member for a tape cartridge, the present inventors found the following points to be improved: In this door member, it is necessary to mount the spring member on the door member by inserting the bend portion, which is hook-shaped, formed at the one end of the spring member into the mount hole with the foremost end thereof forward. In doing this, it is required to twist or rotate the spring member, which makes it difficult to automate the operation of mounting the spring member on the door member. As a result, it is difficult to comply with the demand for further reduced manufacturing costs, and therefore, the door member should be improved in this respect.